초록(외국어)

The issue of whether men`s relation to feminism is possible or impossible one has been debated since the mid-1980s especially when a number of male theorists began to take notes of the claims of feminist criticism and to make an intentional connection of it with their own critical sphere. Female feminists, however, did not welcome wholeheartedly this move to feminist criticism on the part of male theorists, even though in principle feminists thought of this move as a hopeful sign of ending the blindness and indifference of male critics toward feminist criticism. For the most part, female feminists were skeptical of the motives of male critics` stepping in feminist criticism. Many believe that the "male feminists," without willingness to change the masculinist bias of their own critical viewpoint, were using feminist criticism merely for the theoretical sophistication of their own critical practice. This issue of the men`s move to feminism is repeated in the deep ecology-ecofeminism relations. Deep ecology and ecofeminism, which are almost exclusively dominated by men and women respectively, share some commonalities especially in the view of human-nature relations. First of all, both deep ecology and ecofeminism highly value bodily experience of contact with nature. The importance of bodily nature and its subsequent stress on the intuitive, sense-based approach to nature have traditionally been women`s unique understanding of nature. Out of the patriarchal vein of Western traditional approach toward nature, deep ecology has moved toward ecofeminism through its emphasis on an experiential, intuitional understanding of nature. Based upon this movement on the part of deep ecology, some deep ecologists argue that studying ecology means to become womanized, and that deep ecologists inevitably become ecofeminists. However, on the part of the ecofeminists, this argument cannot be accepted on the same reason that feminists opposed the male critics` move toward feminist criticism. In reality, the majority of deep ecologists and their writings still neglect the basic ecofeminist issue of the oppression of women and its relation to the oppression of nature. On the other hand, some ecofeminsts argue to introduce a new culture of exclusive women, brandishing all nature-, women-destructive male culture. Facing the massive destruction of our ecosystem, both deep ecology and ecofeminism need to cooperate in order to reduce environmental crisis and maintain our healthy ecosystem as well as rebuild a sound men-women relationship because the issues of environmental destruction and the oppression of women are not the problems of women alone.